I guess I have 3-4 first aid kit "modules" in the truck, with lots of overlap, but I had an "interesting" one today...

My son and daughter were playing soccer, when one of the other kids came over crying in pain - he had a couple of "non soccer" cuts that were being irritated by his shin guards. The woman who is the president of the soccer club pulled out their first aid kit, wiped down the kid with some iodine, and put on some antibiotic gel, and a couple of bandages, and all worked well. I let her handle it, as she IS a nurse. Thing is, I looked at their first aid kit, and if I was running a soccer league, I'd be ashamed to bring what they had. There was about a dozen Band-Aid, ONE 4x4 etc. No cold packs, no gauze, no tape, no saline/water (although there is running water at the field, so....) No moleskin

I want to make up at least 1, if not 2 kits "for soccer"

I figure, having been watch our team, plus other leagues, our big problems are going to be

1)abrasions - people slide, people trip and fall. The basically get what a bicycle rider would call "road rash" - the big things are to clean it out, and cover it. The part I never thought of - these are kids 6 to 14 - they cry when it hurts. I have no topical analgesics. Any idea what I can add (even if I have to sweet talk my MD for an Rx, and hand it to the nurse) - some sort of pain relief spray?

2)Twisted ankles - cold packs should be good, and some cling

3)Bee stings!! There are a lot of bushes with flowers near our field, so there are a LOT of bees (believe it or not, it's the first place I've seen honey bees in a few years) - a pair of tweezers etc, a clean single edged blade to get the stinger out

4)The occasion laceration from cleats - 4x4s, gauze, tape...

Any ideas? I want to supplement my truck kit (where I have everything but the topical pain relief), and I'd LIKE to "top off" the almost empty "club" first aid kit I say today, as a gift to the league

I've replaced the moleskin in my FAK(s) with duct tape. When hiking I'll tape my "hot spots" before they become blisters.

Can also be used to make spot repairs of shin guards, cleats, restrain and gag obnoxious parents living vicariously through their children .....

Beware of FAK/soccer club turf issues. Been burned on this one. Political savvy is a survival trait, and folks are much less rational in their hobbies and volunteer work than they are in the workplace. If there is some way to make it their idea...

The docs don't pass out the only really effective local anesthetic, lidocaine gel because, if applied too often or too generously, it can be absorbed into systemic circulation and cause convulsions. Cold packs are the best and safest answer. Cookies work, too, but it's hard to keep the kit stocked.

Oh, I know about the turf issues - I asked if she would like some donations to her kit, and the answer was yes, so...

As a seasoned beekeeper who gets stung regularly, I would recommend keeping some Benedryl handy too. I really helps.

+1 on Nursemike's comments about distributing medication to anyone else.

Oh - the medications were for MY kids, and like I said, the person I'm handing the "copy" of the kit to is an RN - I'd just tell her to add whatever drugs she wants. I was actually shocked how POOR a kit she had as the main league kit. Drug wise, anything I hand her will be OTC

I do keep benydryl in 4 out of 5 of the modules, and the grab me first bag has it both in spray and tablet forms. I've said before that I have a venous stasis ulcer on my leg, and every week or so, it gets the ITCHIES - Oh BOY does it itch. Benydryl is a wonder in that situation.

A few months ago, a guy at work had a cast, and HE started to go nuts itching, I asked him "want help" - he did, so I gave him 2 Benydryl (well generics, but..) - he was SO happy, if a bit sleepy, he had been itching for days. I remember when I learned WHY this works, it seems that a healing wound releases histamines, which of course cause you to itch (same reason your nose/eyes itch with allergy). The weird part is that if you scratch, it actually causes a histamine cascade, aka it causes the wound to release MORE histamines

Anyway, time for bed - tomorrow they are doing a skin graft on my leg wound (appligraf for those in the know, and yes, I've heard a lot of the jokes), so time to get some sleep - and wish me luck

The soccer field usually has a Mr Softie Ice Cream truck parked right at the gate - so far I've found that Ice Cream seems to work as well as cookies

I've often wondered about why we'd have that, it doesn't seem like a survival trait. Then I thought about it- it cracks the scab to let infection drain. At least that is the best theory I can think of- does anyone know of a better one?

And everyone can go back to whatever they were eating. :P

In my experience Neosporin "maximum strength" works well, and fast, as a local analgesic for cuts. Don't know if it would be effective on a large scrape, though. And it's not a spray.

Nurit

actually it is

and they also have pain relief neosporin

Thanks Jace, that's good to know about the spray.

By the way, I meant to say the Neosporin I use is "maximum strength + pain relief."

Nurit

Perhaps to remove the dead tissue from a wound ?

Just a thought, it may not apply, when I was a kid we mostly played on dirt fields not grass, and I coached one year: makings for an inflatable leg splint. Three times growing up we had broken legs or ankles, and a couple close calls, it would have been great to splint them up before taking them to the hospital. If yours is the kind of league that calls 911 for such injuries (and has great response times) it may not be necessary. Ask the coach how often this has come up in recent memory in the league. An inflatable pad plus 4-5 cravats would do the trick.

We play on a well maintained grass field - technically owned by NYC, but leased (I believe leased) by the club - the club waters, mows, seeds, etc, so the fields are VERY nice (there is enough room for 4 full sized fields, or more if you have fields for the U6,7,8,etc (the typical 6 man and 8 man fields)

Besides that, NYC EMS response time is prety darned good. All firetrucks have at least one EMT on board, so typical response time would probably be on the order of 5-7 minutes - in tis day of cell phones, the fire truck would probably be getting to the field about the time we got to the front gate to get the first aid kit

I once bought some of these Swab Plus - bascially a Q-tip with liquid in the hollow stick. You snap the neck, and the liquid saturates the cotton swab. I remember the one I had had an antiseptic plus a topical pain reliever - like a really light dose of lidocaine? Something similar to that. The kids didn't mind getting dabbed with it vs. the drama over pouring a little hydrogen peroxide over a cut.

Not sure that these would be practical for a big road rash - you'd probably go through half a box. Also, I'm not seeing one with a pain reliever on their Web site here. The packaging is different than when I'd bought them - perhaps they don't offer it, or I'm just not seeing it listed.
SwabPlus

Dave

One of the issues here may be that neos[porin/triple antibiotic seems less favored in ER usage and therefore less studied than is bacitracin
anecdotally related to a better allergy profile.

I normally flush my booboos with a liberal application of Bactine Spray(it's liquid enough to flush, has lidocain, and is an antibiotic) and then dress with a bandage with a dab of bacitracin or neosporin.

Vaseline dressings work very well on road-rashes and abrasions. It smoothens the skin, relieves the pain and prevents a gauze pad from sticking to the wound.

You'd definantly want to add a box of vaseline dressings for your soccer FAK.

Vaseline dressings also make great hand warmers and fire starters

Probably a few reasons:
-1 drug versus 3, so less chance for allergic reaction
-works fairly well (you'll notice bacitracin is the main drug in neosporin too)
-CHEAPER, probably

Tweezers for bee stings is not necessarily a good idea, since squeezing the stinger actually causes more venom to be injected into the tissue, but having tweezers in the first aid kit for other uses is a great idea (e.g. removing splinters). A plain ol' credit/debit card works well enough to remove stingers - simply use it to scrape off the stinger.

I second the cold packs for pain relief...